INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS PRESENT PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS ON ELECTION

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Mongolia’s presidential election competitive and well-organized, but ongoing court cases caused uncertainty over candidacies, international observers say. The June 26 June presidential election was competitive and well-organized, featuring a short yet fierce campaign; the election administration largely enjoyed public confidence and the freedoms of complaints, as well as pending court cases, led to uncertainty regarding candidacies. The media coverage was extensive, but largely devoid of analytical reporting, the international observers concluded in a statement. Representatives of the International Election Observation Mission of Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) / Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and European Parliament released the joint statement today at a press conference. “These were well-run elections, and are overall promising for the future of Mongolia’s democracy”, said Guglielmo Picchi, Special Coordinator and leader of the short-term OSCE observer mission. He expressed hope that the mission’s overall positive experience is confirmed by the second round which is fixed on July 9. The General Election Commission enjoyed stakeholders’ trust, met key deadlines and operated in a transparent manner, the statement says. It also suggests that current candidacy requirements are overly restrictive and limit voters’ choice. The election campaign was dynamic, however, the political discourse wasn’t exempt from xenophobic rhetoric, the observers stated, citing several leaked recordings alleging candidates’ involvement in corruption and other illegal activities which shaped the campaign narrative. “We regret that campaign finance regulations on transparency and accountability didn’t address, in a timely manner, concerns of corruption in political life”, said Laima Andrikiene, Chair of the European Parliament delegation, noting how candidates’ mutual accusations discouraged voters, especially the youth, from voting. The European Parliament observation mission was divided into three teams, deployed in Ulaanbaatar, Zuunmod and Darkhan, and visited both urban and rural areas. The international observers visited limited number of polling stations on election day to find that voting and counting were orderly, but transparency was somewhat limited by the GEC releasing only aggregated results. They observed that female workers outnumbered men. “I think that the Mongolian people had, in the first round of the presidential election, the possibility to express their choice in a genuinely democratic election, although there were a number of shortcomings”, remarked Ambassador Geert-Hinrich Ahrens, Head of the OSCE/ODIHR limited election observation mission. The mission will stay in Mongolia until after the second round. The OSCE/ODIHR mission comprises 12 core team experts from 12 participating stated based in Ulaanbaatar and 20 long-term observers deployed throughout the country. Kh.Aminaa